


you got me (and i'll show you)

by lotts (LottieAnna)



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Soulmarks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-11 20:47:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13532244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieAnna/pseuds/lotts
Summary: Tito writes the same thing on his stick before every game, but Mat’s never really thought about it too much.





	you got me (and i'll show you)

**Author's Note:**

> if you or anyone you know is mentioned in the tags of this story, PLEASE click away!!! this is a work of fiction, i know no real information about any of the people in this!

Mat looks down at his ankle one day and sees vertical lettering.

He didn’t draw it there, and when he rubs at it, he realizes it’s not ink. It’s not a tattoo either, because even if Mat had, at some point, gotten blackout drunk and gotten a tattoo—which, for the record, he’s pretty sure he hasn’t—it would probably hurt, or there would be some redness around it, and there’s none of that, just the words.

 _HAVE FUN =),_ it says, in messy, scraggly handwriting.

Mat stares at it for a second, and then he smiles, a small, lopsided thing, kind of approving, except there’s no one around to actually see it.

He hopes they can feel it, though. It’s a pretty nice feeling.

 

(Mat had never looked forward to finding his soulmate before.

He likes people, he likes being able to choose the ones who stick around and the ones he keeps at arm’s length, and he likes the steady stream of friends who bob in and out of his life, old classmates and teammates who see different sides of him in flashes. He likes having that room to grow, and learn, and change his mind, and while there’s something to be said about permanence, Mat is young, and he looks forward to change.

But there’s something about the soulmark, and the good-natured sweet simplicity of it, that makes Mat excited to meet this person. He’s not sure if the feeling he has is a soulmate thing or just a gut reaction, but either way, he likes them already.)  

 

Tito has been one of Mat’s favorite people for as long as he’s known him.

They fit well together, because Mat is good at matching his personality up to other people’s, and Tito’s is a good personality to match. He’s fun, kind, level-headed, honest, open, sweet, and funny. Mat feels too mean around him, sometimes, but Tito doesn’t seem to think so, and really, he just—things are good, when it’s the two of them. Mat likes who he is when he’s with Tito.

So, even if Tito’s not his closest friend, Mat can honestly say that the two of them getting drafted to the same team is pretty optimal. They’re already buddies, but they see each other infrequently enough that it feels like there’s more friendship to build, and now, they get some space to do that.

Mat thinks a lot about things, mostly hockey and the people in his life. He thinks a lot about what he’s doing and why he’s doing it and why it matters and who it matters to, and it turns into overthinking very quickly, if he doesn’t stop thinking and start doing things. With Tito, Mat’s never had to think all that much, and it’s nice, to have the buzzing in his head stop for a bit.   

 

Things fall into place, eventually, and Mat finds his feet on NHL ice. He loves his team, and he loves his game, and he loves that he has space to learn, so a few things happen without Mat realizing them.

Mostly, he grows up.

It starts with accepting that he’s not gonna have this figured out for a while, because there are a billion new and amazing and terrifying and awesome things happening in his life at once. It’s weird, because Mat’s used to trying to figure things out, but he embraces this as a long-term project. He doesn’t need to leap ahead, he doesn’t need to be the best right from the start, he doesn’t need to turn heads, he just needs to adjust. Mat’s always been good with change, but this is the kind of change that asks him to plant his feet and take stock of himself, and that’s something Mat’s never done before. But he’s always been good at thinking, so he decides to embrace it.

And having Tito helps, because Tito was here last year, and Tito’s at Mat’s side now, with a season in the NHL under his belt and still not quite sure of everything. It should scare Mat, maybe, that a year from now he could still not know what to do with himself, but it’s mostly just reassuring.

 

Tito gets sent down, and Mat misses him more than he expected to, but he gets called back up soon enough, and then he gets put on Mat’s line.

That’s when they start to make magic together.

Mat hadn’t quite expected it to be this good, because Tito had been kind of freaked out about the start of his season, but when he comes back from Bridgeport, he looks like his old self. Mat hadn’t even realized how worn-down and terrified he’d been before, but the difference is like night and day. Tito’s excited, playing like every shift is a chance to do something great, and when he does, the excitement is contagious. Their line feeds off that energy and turns it into goals, and it’s pretty fucking great.

It’s not the biggest surprise in the world, because sometimes things fall into place exactly the way they should, but it’s still awesome when it happens.

 

(“I can’t believe you spoke to the media in French,” Tito says, after they win in Montreal.

“I mean, I know it, so I might as well use it,” Mat says. “I probably messed up some stuff, I’m rusty.”

“You did,” Tito says cheerfully.

“What, you already watched it?” Mat grins.

“Duh,” Tito says, totally unashamed.

Mat just shakes his head, not quite able to wipe the smile off his face.)

 

Tito writes the same thing on his stick before every game, but Mat’s never really thought about it too much.

This time, though, when Tito writes out _HAVE FUN_ in vertical block letters, Mat’s heart starts beating really, really fast. The words look more or less the same as they usually do, but the small differences are making Mat’s head spin, the way the ‘U’ is slightly lopsided and the space after ‘F’ is a little too large, and then Tito pauses, looks over at Mat, and decisively, adds a smiley face at the end.

Everything freezes.

Mat’s first thought isn’t, _that’s my soulmark,_ or _Tito is my soulmate,_ or anything about that. He’s not even looking at the mark anymore, because it’s much less interesting than the way Tito is smiling at him, all dumb and pleased and happy. It’s a very Tito kind of smile, and a very Tito kind of thing to smile about, and Mat could drown in the fondness that’s welling up inside of him. Usually, it’s kind of just, like, a really cool thing, the way Tito can make him smile more than anyone else, but right now—

It’s a lot more than that.

It’s also, like, pretty awesome.

“What do you think?” Tito asks, turning the stick so Mat gets his first unobstructed look at it, and it’s his soulmark, but that’s kind of secondary, right now.

It’s probably rude that Mat kisses Tito instead of answering his question, but he doesn’t really think there’s any good way to lead-in for this, so he just kind of goes for it. It’s not like they’ve ever kissed each other before, and it’s strange and unfamiliar for a second, but just as Mat starts to think he should’ve tried to find some sort of segue, Tito kisses him back, and no, yeah, this was _definitely_ a good choice.

“What that it?” Tito asks, momentarily breaking the kiss, but his mouth doesn’t wander far from Mat’s. “Was that your mark?”

“The ‘have fun,’ yeah,” Mat says, and he kisses Tito again before he adds, “And the smiley face.”

“Of course it was the smiley face,” Tito says, like that makes any sense at all, but he’s grinning, so Mat doesn’t really care enough to point that out.

“So yours—”

“It was a snap, I didn’t screenshot in time, it was very upsetting and I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Tito says, smiling.

“A snap?”

“Mmhmm,” Tito says. “A few weeks ago. You drew a heart around your coffee.”

“So it was the heart?” Mat asks.

“Yep.”

“Wow,” Mat says. “That’s soft as fuck.”

Tito punches him lightly. _“You’re_ soft as fuck, you’re the one who drew it. It’s a shitty heart, by the way.”

“How can a heart be shitty?” Mat asks.

“It’s all lopsided,” Tito says. “You’re a really terrible artist.”

“Hope that’s not a dealbreaker,” Mat says.

“Oh, it’s definitely not,” Tito says. He’s still got his hands clasped behind Mat’s neck. “I like you a lot.”

“Same here,” May says. “So it’s probably a good thing we’re soulmates.”

“Yeah, that’s convenient,” Tito says.

They kiss again, and don’t stop until they absolutely have to, and even then, Mat still doesn’t really want to let go of him, but he rationalizes that they have plenty of time later to do plenty more than kiss.

 

(Things change a lot after that, except for how they don’t.

Like, the world goes on around them, because as far as major life milestones go, this one is pretty mild. The day-to-day of their lives don’t really change. They’re still hockey players, they still have practices and games and team things to do, and they still have other friends to hang out with and families to talk to and a billion other things in their lives besides each other.

But they also have each other, and it’s different than it was before, because now Mat will trace his finger over the admittedly uneven heart on Tito’s ankle, partly because Mat’s a total sap, and partly because Tito is very ticklish and absolutely hates it.

Mat’s gotten kicked in the face, like, four times, but he still thinks it’s worth it.)

**Author's Note:**

> this was written 100% because I love Tito and recently found out he writes "have fun" on his stick tape before games, and I didn't really know what else to do besides write 1.5k about it. there's not much more to it than that. this is unbeta'd but i have to sleep so~


End file.
